VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Portofino?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’s own page.

Choose Portofino for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Nuevo Vallarta 84, Portofino 60: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Portofino 36: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Portofino 22: Portofino leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Portofino 14: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Portofino 33: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Portofino 9: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Portofino 7: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Portofino 42: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Portofino.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on families and prices with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaPortofino

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaPortofino
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaItalian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m20 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaPortofino
City population1,301355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Nuevo Vallarta or Portofino somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.